Delaware, U.S. -- For her 9th birthday in October, Briana Taylor did something radically different than most U.S. kids would even consider on a day that is traditionally celebrated with birthday cake and gifts. For the third year in a row, Briana asked her party guests not to bring her any presents.
Her invitations instructed guests to bring the amount of money they would normally have spent on a birthday gift, and Briana would put it towards a mission project.
The past two years, she raised $158 and $252 respectively at mission-themed parties that included games children play in other parts of the world, and globe decorations.
As Briana's friends and family caught her vision, this year Briana's birthday donations skyrocketed: they surpassed her $300 goal by collecting $440 for the Flower of Life Kindergarten program operated by the Gorre Church of the Nazarene in Albania.
Then someting else happened. Her pastor, Ron Parker, at Crosspoint Church of the Nazarene, preached a sermon on finances in November in which he used Briana's sacrificial spirit as an illustration for God's commandment to store treasures in heaven rather than on earth by investing in people, not things.
"Briana has no regular source of income, but she didn’t let that stop her. She found a way to give just the same," he said to the congregation. Parker then said that he and his wife would add $60 to bring Briana's total to $500. He invited others to come forward with offerings for the Albania kindergarten if they were moved to do so. Members of the congregation began to move forward, dropping checks and bills into a bowl. By the service's end, the offering had mounted to over $1,700.
Briana's mother, Tamara, went to find the nine-year-old who was practicing a Christmas play downstairs with the children's group.
"Before I even knew what was going on, someone walked up to me and handed me like $10, and I looked at my mom like, 'What’s going on?'" Briana said. "People were crying and crowding all around me and telling me good job, but before they said good job, I thought I was in trouble or something."
Tamara said she and her husband Craig help their daughter keep it all in perspective.
"We’ve tried to tell her, and tell all three of the children, Briana didn’t do any of it. God did it."
They also want to ensure that if she gives up her presents each year, she does it for the right reasons.
"We’ve made it very clear to her, 'If at any point you want to be a little kid and get presents, toys, a gift card for your birthday, nobody thinks any less of you. There’s nothing wrong with it,'" Tamara said. "We want to make clear she doesn’t have to do this to be loved by God and loved by us."
Briana has been nurtured in a family and home church who are joining God in His mission to the world. Her older brother Josiah raised $1,000 to go on a Work & Witness trip when he was just 8 years old. Crosspoint Church has been in an official partnership with two Nazarene churches in Albania and two in Kosovo, and the missionaries serving there. Her children's pastor, Janelle Beiler, has long influenced the children's group in loving and obeying God when He speaks.
Briana said yes to God's call to be a missionary during a revival service when she was 5. She got started right away in finding ways to live out that call.
After the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, Briana went door-to-door visiting businesses, doctor’s offices, schools and even the post office to raise money for Crisis Care Kits, which local churches around the world assemble with basic hygiene items. She explained how Crisis Care Kits can help people who have lost everything in a disaster and that this is what her church does for others in situations such as the “big waves in Sri Lanka,” as she called it. Briana raised nearly $300 and enjoyed filling her shopping cart at the local drug store with hygiene products that the church would later prepare into Crisis Care Kits.
Earlier this year Briana pledged $50 for Faith Promise, an annual event held by many churches during which people pledge to give a certain amount throughout the year to selected mission projects. Her parents normally help her decide on an amount for the pledge and provide her with small jobs and chores around the house to raise the money. This year, however, her father was out of work for a time, so they could not help her raise the money. Undeterred, Briana said, “I’ll make pot holders and sell them to raise the money.”
She raised $55, exceeding her pledge.
Briana’s energy and passion is overflowing for the Lord, and God continues to bless her efforts in large ways. “I hope that every person around the world gets to hear about God because knowing the Creator of the world to me is a privilege," she said.
Reflecting on Briana’s call and the role of the teachers at Cross Pointe Church, Briana’s mom said, “Somewhere in a pew nearby all of us is a wiggly, sometimes noisy, missionary in training. It is up to us to teach compassion as common. As children we brush our teeth, learn to read, practice manners and live compassion. It must be a natural part of who we are.”
-- Part of this story was originally printed in NCM Magazine, a free quarterly publication of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM). To subscribe, as well as learn more ways to live compassion as a lifestyle, visit www.ncm.org. Gina Pottenger contributed to this story.